I'm a Frenchman now living in Porto, and I am joining you group of enthusiasts in order to increase my understanding of this wine that is so visibly important here.

As it so happen I have a question: where do vats and casks in which ports is aged come from? I sort of remember from somewhere that at least some of them come from other wine-growing regions in Europe. Does any one have any info on that?

I seem to remember hearing that most port casks and barrels are either very old and have been in the lodges for many years or are new (made with French oak; the Portuguese oak plantations having been depleted and become negligible). I don't think casks that have already been used in other wine regions are used. Graham's currently have a certain amount of publicity material (presumably online as well as in print) emphasising the importance of their coopering operations.

djewesbury wrote:I seem to remember hearing that most port casks and barrels are either very old and have been in the lodges for many years or are new (made with French oak; the Portuguese oak plantations having been depleted and become negligible). I don't think casks that have already been used in other wine regions are used. Graham's currently have a certain amount of publicity material (presumably online as well as in print) emphasising the importance of their coopering operations.

Welcome,

From what I recall, the really old Port barrels (large and small) are a mix of Portuguese and French. Depending on how old they are. The older having a greater likelihood of being Portuguese.

I've not seen any Hungarian or American barrels so far, though I'm sure there has been some experimentation in using them for Douro dry wines. But I've not see any in Port use so far.

djewesbury wrote:I seem to remember hearing that most port casks and barrels are either very old and have been in the lodges for many years or are new (made with French oak; the Portuguese oak plantations having been depleted and become negligible). I don't think casks that have already been used in other wine regions are used. Graham's currently have a certain amount of publicity material (presumably online as well as in print) emphasising the importance of their coopering operations.

Welcome,

From what I recall, the really old Port barrels (large and small) are a mix of Portuguese and French. Depending on how old they are. The older having a greater likelihood of being Portuguese.

I've not seen any Hungarian or American barrels so far, though I'm sure there has been some experimentation in using them for Douro dry wines. But I've not see any in Port use so far.

+1

To djewesbury, though, my understanding is that the barrels are supposed to be as neutral as possible. To get that way, it seems to me that they would need to be used in some way to become neutral before being used for Port. The most logical way to do that would be to use them for red wine, possibly Douro red wine.